BROOKS, AB (November 30, 2018) – The Brooks Bandits (25-3) bounced back from Tuesday’s road loss to the Calgary Mustangs, downing the visiting Mustangs 7-4 at the Centennial Regional Arena on Friday night.
The Bandits outshot the Mustangs 51-16 in the game, including 33-8 in the final two periods.
Calgary opened the scoring only 58 seconds in on their first power play when a Joseph Karpyshyn wrist shot from the high slot beat Bandit goalie Pierce Charleson (Aurora, ON). But the Bandits tied it on a power play of their own at the 7:38 mark when Ryan Mahshie (Stoney Creek, ON) fed a pass from the right circle to Jake Theis (Chanhassen, MN) at the left circle, whose one timer beat a sprawling Mustang goalie Ben Howard to make it 1-1.
Brooks took the lead just over two minutes after that when Ray Christy (St. Paul, MN) fired a high slot one-timer in through a screen at 9:57. But Calgary pulled it back even when Chase Miller one-timed in a loose puck from the high slot at 10:30. William Lemay gave Brooks the lead back with less than five minutes left in the first when he tapped in a rebound at the front of the net.
Calgary tied it back up only 2:45 into the second on a Daniel Rybarik breakaway goal. But Jakob Lee (Owen Sound, ON) scored a highlight reel go-ahead marker at the 16:09 mark when he drove in on the rush, got around a Calgary defender, and cut to the front of the net and flipped a shot in short side for a 3-2 Brooks lead.
The Bandits extended the lead 48 seconds into the third on an Arnaud Vachon (Ajax, ON) tap-in from the front of the net. Lemay scored his second of the game on the power play at the 9:26 mark for a 6-3 lead, and newcomer Randy Hernandez (Miami, FL) got his first point as a Bandit at the 14:36 mark, centering a pass from the left corner than Simon Gravel (Boucherville, QC) tapped in from the net front for a 7-3 lead.
Brady Barclay scored on a power play rebound for Calgary at 18:38 to make it 7-4, but it was as close as the Mustangs would get. Charleson made 12 saves on 16 shots for the win while Howard stopped 44 of 51 shots.
The Bandits will again play the Mustangs on Tuesday night on the road at 7:30 before returning home to host the Calgary Canucks on Wednesday at 7 PM.